Languages in Kazakhstan

The Constitution declares Kazakh as the state or official language, and requires that the President of the country be a speaker of the language. Russian is the second official language but both are recognized for commercial purposes. While Kazakh is spoken by about 64.4% of the population, Russian is spoken by almost everyone—or 95% of the population. Kazakh is a Turkic language in Cyrillic script, with its modern form utilizing many foreign words such as Russian, Persian, Arabic, Mongol, Chinese, Uzbek and Tatar. To many foreigners in the country Kazakh is difficult to understand or pronounce, and Russian is harder to learn. In spite of efforts to stamp out the Russian language especially after the country gained its independence in 1991, Almaty province and the northern areas have remained predominantly Russian-speaking.

The other languages that are also spoken in the country include German, with 958,000 speakers; Uyghur, 300,000; Ukrainian, 898,000; Tatar, 328,000; Belarusau, 183,000; Korean, 103,000; Polish, 61,000; Greek, 47,000; and Romanian, 33,000. Kazakh and Russian have 5,290,000 and 6,230,000 speakers, respectively. English, another foreign language, has been gaining popularity among the young generation since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is spoken by 30% of city dwellers and by many people in the customs department and airports. Turkish is also spoken by many people who have found some similarities between it and the Kazakh language. Travelers are advised to have some Russian and Kazakh language knowledge and skills to be able to get around the country well.

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